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We’re 24 hours out. A day away from tangible, real, meaningful Boston Celtics basketball gracing the court and our screens for the first time in 170 days. With that, there’s only one thing to do.

I invited Feed followers to exorcise all of their excitement and angst by sharing their “Hot Takes” about the upcoming Celtics season. Let’s analyze the spiciest of those takes, judge how likely they are to come true, and get ourselves riled up one last time before we embark on that long journey to Banner 19.

The Team Takes

“The Celtics finish top five offensively and top three defensively.” Celtics_fan_in_va

Starting us off, we need to address the elephant in the room. It can be difficult to come up with a truly spicy take when your subject is Joe Mazzulla’s Boston Celtics. Read through 90% of team sites, forums and local media, and a top-five finish on both ends would be suitably hot. UV protection required.

Dig into the data from Joe’s previous iterations of the Celtics and the take starts to feel a little frosty. Check out Boston’s finishes in offensive and defensive rating from 2022–23 through 2025–26, Joe’s full tenure as head coach.

In each of Mazzulla’s four seasons at the helm, Boston has finished comfortably inside the top five offensively, while ranking no lower than fourth defensively. In fact, according to NBA.com, Boston became the first team since turnovers were tracked in 1977 to finish in the top five on both ends in four consecutive seasons.

Nothing is a certainty in the modern NBA, particularly with injuries, but with no true emerging giant joining the ranks of Oklahoma City and San Antonio, I think it’s completely reasonable to expect Boston to rank in the top three defensively and top five offensively in 2026–27.

“Boston go 40-1 at home.” Eaglemike

Now that’s a take! Across four seasons, Boston is 127–37 (.774) at home. During the championship season in 2023–24, the C’s went 37–4 at TD Garden, one of the best home records in NBA history and the best of any team in the 2020s.

Eaglemike predicts that Boston not only surpasses that mark, but that a Jayson Tatum-led Celtics team joins perhaps the greatest team in franchise history, the ’86 Celtics, atop the mountain of all-time regular-season home records at 40–1.

The argument for it would be the degree to which this Celtics roster is optimised to maul teams night after night. There are options on the bench, depth throughout the roster, the added three-point volume of Paul George and Mitchell Robinson attacking the glass on both ends. If you view Tatum as essentially a swap for Brown from last year, I think it’s clear that the team Joe has access to for the majority of this season is far superior to last year’s roster.

This group is also far better equipped to survive cold shooting nights, thanks to its ability to rebound and generate turnovers. That speaks to Boston being a juggernaut both home and away, but I struggle to buy a Celtics team with ammunition still left in the chamber, and a number-one option returning from a serious injury, equalling one of the NBA’s most sacred records.

The Big Fella University Takes

“Queta wins 6th man of the year.” PDCeltics

Here’s a cleaned-up version that keeps your tone and structure while smoothing the flow and fixing spelling:

This is the season where Neemias Queta seeks to earn tenure at Big Fella University. Questions around Queta’s quality and consistency from last offseason feel as though they were voiced a long time ago. According to DataBallr, Boston was 6.3 points per 100 possessions better defensively last year when Queta took the court, and he played his part offensively too, scoring an efficient 10 points a night while doing all the big-man basics that helped facilitate higher-usage offensive players. Neemy was pivotal to Boston on both sides of the floor last year.

Rewarded with a $56 million extension, Queta is here to stay, but preseason outings against Charlotte and Philadelphia have suggested that he will take up a new role on this year’s C’s. No coach has employed the “Hack-a-Mitch” ploy more frequently than Mazzulla over the past couple of seasons. To avoid endless trips to the charity stripe in the final two minutes of quarters, it seems Robinson will be the nominal starter for the Celtics this year, opening up an opportunity for Queta to compete for a major accolade.

As it stands, the Portuguese big man can’t be found on either the short or long lists of Sixth Man of the Year candidates. Payton Pritchard has short odds at +400, so in fairness to PDCeltics, this is a hot take.

The case for Queta competing for the award would be an analytically driven one. I’d have to expect him to post magnificent on/off or EPM numbers, while also coming up with huge plays in pivotal moments, to truly vie for honors. Queta’s game doesn’t resemble those of the other bench big men who have walked away with the Sixth Man trophy. Naz Reid and Montrezl Harrell were spark plugs of sorts, with a unique proclivity for juicing an offense. Queta didn’t drag Boston’s offensive rating down when he was on the floor last year, but he didn’t accentuate it either.

The last true-blue big man to win the award for doing big-man things was Roy Tarpley in 1987–88. Queta winning would represent a landmark shift in how the award is judged. For that reason, while I think Queta could be one of the very best bench players in the league this year, his chances of winning 6MOY are rightly astronomical.

“The platoon of Queta and Robinson gives the Celtics the best 48-minute center combination outside of Denver and San Antonio.” Geno-Time

Geno-Time would make a great analyst. This is a brilliant level of hot take. It’s sufficiently spicy but I believe it bares real scrutiny. The Celtics are looking to imitate the success of their former Finals opponents, the 2024 Dallas Mavericks, with their big-man tandem of Robinson and Queta. Neither Robinson nor Queta possesses the skill set to vie for an All-Star berth, but together they provide an insanely high floor at the five for Boston. I’ll list a few other tandems and rotations below that I think are worthy of consideration once you take Denver and San Antonio out of the equation:

• Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams
• Donovan Clingan and Rob Williams III
• Naz Reid, Moussa Diabate and Ryan Kalkbrenner
• Rudy Gobert and Joan Beringer
• Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren and Aday Mara

In my view, all of the above rotations possess more raw talent than Boston’s frontcourt. Injury concerns surrounding Steven Adams and Rob Williams, however, raise real questions about their ability to outplay Neemy and Mitch over the course of a season. The likes of Beringer and Aday Mara are also unproven at the NBA level, so there’s certainly an argument that Boston will have a true top-tier rotation at center this season.

The key to Robinson and Queta providing more value than the bigs above lies with Boston’s stars. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving unlocked Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, two non-All-Star bigs, to great effect, helping them outperform their individual talent level and making the Dallas frontcourt imperious throughout the 2024 season.

I don’t think Queta and Robinson will be the third-best big-man rotation in the league this year, but if they are, expect either the best season of Jayson Tatum’s career or a major leap from the subject of our next take to be the key to their success.

The Payton Pritchard Takes

“Payton Pritchard is named to the All-Star team as a coach selection or injury replacement.” Larksnado

PPayton winning Sixth Man of the Year isn’t a hot enough take to qualify for this list, so we have to skip a few steps and get into real Sean Evans, make-your-head-explode territory. Larksnado’s claim that Pritch makes his first All-Star team this year is one I’ve considered and investigated in seasons prior.

Fans and analysts alike have suggested for years that Pritchard, a game-breaking college guard who has improved in each of his six NBA seasons, could possess the requisite skills to make the jump from high-impact player to perimeter star in the same way Jalen Brunson has since taking up residence in NYC.

To figure out Pritchard’s chances of making an All-Star team, we can look at a few different things. Firstly, let’s consider his competition for places in the East ahead of the upcoming season. Here’s a list of Payton’s stiffest competition:

• Jalen Brunson
• Tyrese Haliburton
• Cade Cunningham
• James Harden
• Donovan Mitchell
• Tyrese Maxey
• Desmond Bane
• Derrick White
• Tyler Herro
• Coby White
• Nickeil Alexander-Walker

If healthy, Brunson, Cunningham, Mitchell and Maxey are close to guarantees for places on the All-Star roster. I haven’t included Haliburton in that group because we can’t be 100% certain that he returns to his pre-injury level, but his name can at least be pencilled in.

That leaves Harden and Herro, both former All-Stars who will be in contention, followed by Derrick White, Coby White, Bane and Alexander-Walker, all of whom occupy a similar position to Pritchard, on the outside looking in. Typically, there are a maximum of six guards selected per conference, but with injury replacements we could argue that number might rise to seven next season. Crucially, I believe every player listed above is more likely to start for their respective team. Starting leads to usage, usage leads to points, and points lead to All-Star recognition.

The scenario in which Pritchard makes the All-Star team looks something like this: it becomes clear within the opening ten games that Boston needs Pritch as Tatum’s legitimate second option when the two share the floor, as well as the primary option for bench units. That leads to a spike in usage into genuine All-Star territory.

Of the last 14 guards to make their first All-Star appearance, only Fred VanVleet (23.7%) and Tyrese Haliburton (23.8%) posted a usage rate below 27.1%. Pritchard’s career-high usage came last year, when he posted a rate of 21.6%, so we would need to see Payton empowered to a degree that he hasn’t yet come close to before.

Whilst that makes Pritchard’s All-Star case seem a little far fetched his lineup data with JB on the court last year is proof that he can play at an All-Star level:

If Pritchard keeps up that form in non-Jayson lineups this year and assumes an Austin Reaves like role alongside Tatum there’s a chance that Larksnado is looking awfully smart come February this season.

The Paul George Takes

“Paul George will play more games than LeBron James” Jeff Clark (That’s right, the Jeff Clark!)

Jeff was too kind commenting this on the Feed. This could be an article unto itself, and I’m sure it’s something we’re all rooting for heading into the season.

The numbers don’t look good. Over the last five years, LeBron has played 73 more regular-season games than George, with PG13 missing half the season or more in each of his last two seasons.

I believe Jeff’s take is rooted in the idea of role difficulty and need. George is entering his seventeenth season, and I believe the last time he had this little on-ball responsibility was his sophomore NBA season, fifteen years ago. George has already done some interesting stuff as a point forward for Boston in the preseason, but first and foremost I expect him to be a plus role player this year.

Hit the role-player shots, switch on defence, occasionally create off the bounce. Games played aren’t all the same. George shouldn’t be required to take on the most physical assignment on any given night this year. He’ll have the widest driving lanes to the rim that he’s experienced since the bubble, minimising the contact that can lead to awkward landings or contact injuries. George can be nursed through the season with a view to contributing each night and building towards playoff impact.

LeBron James, on the other hand, is still, even at 42 years old, LeBron James. Contact at the rim is inevitable. On-ball responsibility, touches and physicality are all givens when your talents, even in year twenty-four, still command the ball. I believe Jeff has read James’ sciatica quotes, empathised, factored in his usage and come to the conclusion that an injury could be on the horizon for James this year, whereas George might simply avoid that same level of wear and tear.

The theory that James will sit more often because of Philadelphia’s star power is also worth considering. With stars in their prime around him, LeBron can afford to skip back-to-backs and manage his schedule, just as his co-star Joel Embiid will. We know Boston will seek to strangle the regular season, and we know Philadelphia will seek to survive it.

“Paul George will be NBA Finals MVP” C’s the day (Great username)

Paul George calling “Ball Game” in the biggest game of his career would perhaps be the highlight of my NBA watching life and a worth while ending to my favoutite Basketball GIF of all time. Lets pray for this one.

The Important Takes

“JT starts a Twitch stream” Celts4life

The man has an eight year old son. Streaming with Speed feels like a before kids activity.

“Jaylen Brown gets married this year.” Celtics_fan_in_va

Could this be the end of the stream as we know it?

“KP and Horford retire at the end of the season” Celtics_fan_in_va

I thought KP retired in 2024?

“Hugo Gonzales marries Steve Jobs’ widow and buys the Celtics.” Saint Stephen

Lauren Powell Jobs has three kids and hasn’t remarried since Jobs’ death in 2011. Powell would also have to sell her 20% stake in the Washington Wizards to make this happen but let’s be honest… Who wouldn’t for Hugo?

See all the takes in the feed above. Apologies if you didn’t make the cut!

It’s still preseason in the NBA – the regular season doesn’t start until Tuesday – but former Blue Devil Cameron Boozer has made an impression on many people, not least of all, former All-Star and NBA Champion Kevin Garnett.

Obviously, Garnett knows what he’s talking about, and he has nice things to say about Boozer. Check it out:

“I like him, I like him. 

“He is really polished. And he plays defense too… 

“He is going to be in (Rookie of the Year talks). He got the most give, he got the most – I can get away with anything any night – he can mess up and still (produce). 

“He gonna be 20/10. 

“He got a little Jokic in his game. He is a little more athletic, he will dunk you. The high-post where he can make decisions.

“He nice, I like him. He got a high IQ too. Shout out to Boozer.”

For people who were sure that Boozer wasn’t athletic enough, there’s a pretty good indication that you might be wrong.

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Dusty May might be the most fascinating person in the Mavericks organization this season.

Dallas hired him straight out of Michigan after he won the 2026 national championship, and the hire immediately became one of the offseason’s biggest swings. May had already built a reputation as one of college basketball’s brightest coaches after taking Florida Atlantic to a Final Four, then turning Michigan from an 8-24 team into a 37-3 national champion in two years. He also became the first college coach to jump directly to an NBA head coaching job since John Beilein left Michigan for Cleveland in 2019.

That history matters because this transition usually goes poorly.

Brad Stevens worked. Billy Donovan worked. A lot of others did not. John Calipari lasted just over two seasons in New Jersey, Rick Pitino struggled in Boston, and Beilein’s Cleveland experiment ended after only 54 games. The NBA asks coaches to manage adults, egos, travel, and a schedule with significantly less practice time than college basketball allows. May knows all of that.

He also believes the modern college game has prepared him better than some of those coaches. At his introductory press conference, May pointed to NIL and the transfer portal as experiences that forced college coaches to deal with agents, paid players, roster churn, and many of the same relationship-management issues NBA coaches face.

Now he has to prove that theory in Dallas.

Biggest question

Does Dusty May’s system actually translate to this Mavericks roster?

In theory, I love a lot of what he wants to do. May’s offenses have been built around pace, spacing, ball movement, and shot quality. He wants rim attempts, free throws, and catch-and-shoot threes. He does not want an offense that settles for bad midrange shots or spends 15 seconds watching one player dribble. His Michigan team had one of the most efficient offenses in college basketball last season, and his overall approach is much closer to the modern NBA than most college coaches run.

That sounds great until you look at the Mavericks. Kyrie Irving is basically the only proven high-level ball-handler on the roster, and he’s also one of the best midrange scorers ever. Cooper Flagg can create, but Dallas should not want him initiating every possession. Zaccharie Risacher is still figuring out what he is. The rest of the roster has plenty of wings, forwards, and bigs who attack better than they create.

May’s teams also tend to play with a lot of freedom, and that can lead to turnovers. That is what I worry about with this group right now. Dallas does not have a bunch of elite decision-makers who can constantly make live reads without mistakes.

Best case scenario

May becomes one of the rare college coaches whose style actually looks even better in the NBA. That is the dream. Dallas plays fast. Flagg becomes a monster in transition. Kyrie still gets freedom to use the midrange when it is there, while the rest of the team becomes much more disciplined about generating threes, layups, and free throws. Risacher finds an actual role. Morez Johnson Jr. develops quickly because he already understands what May wants.

May has also always been a relationship coach. Michigan’s culture was built heavily around unselfishness, development, and player buy-in, and that matters as much as any X’s and O’s. If he can get NBA veterans to buy in the same way his college players did, Dallas could establish an identity much faster than most young teams.

The defensive side is interesting too. May has shown he is willing to adapt to his personnel rather than forcing one system. At Michigan, he leaned into size and versatility and built the nation’s top-ranked defense instead of simply copying what worked at FAU. That adaptability is probably why I rate him so highly.

Worst-case scenario

The history wins.

The NBA isn’t college basketball, and May will find out quickly that a good system isn’t the same as having players who can run it.

The turnovers pile up. Dallas struggles to create offense whenever Kyrie sits. May wants to use versatile centers as passing and decision-making hubs, but Dereck Lively II is already dealing with injuries, and the rest of the center rotation may not be built for that kind of responsibility. The offense becomes too theoretical and not practical enough for the roster he actually has.

Then there is the relationship side.

May’s calm demeanor and collaborative approach should help. However, professional players still respond differently than college players. Beilein’s failure in Cleveland is a pretty obvious reminder that even an elite college coach can lose an NBA locker room quickly.

If May cannot adjust quickly, Dallas could spend the season trying to run a system designed for players it doesn’t have.

Season goal

Establish an identity. I do not think this season should be judged entirely by wins and losses. Dallas needs to know what a Dusty May basketball team looks like by April. Does Flagg look more comfortable? Does the offense create easier shots? Do players understand their roles? Can May develop young players while still holding veterans accountable? Can Dallas play with the pace and movement he wants without turning the ball over constantly? That matters more than whether the Mavericks win 39 or 44 games.

Overall

I am high on Dusty May. Part of that is probably because he came from Indiana (Go Hoosiers) and I loved what he did at Michigan, but there are real basketball reasons to believe in him too. His style is modern. His offenses make sense mathematically. He has shown he can adapt to different personnel. Players seem to buy into him, and his college teams already looked more like NBA teams than most.

But this is still a massive gamble. The history of college coaches jumping directly to the NBA is ugly, and Dallas’ roster isn’t built perfectly for what May wants to do. He could be the next Brad Stevens. He could also find out very quickly why almost nobody makes this jump successfully.

The Clippers will have their hands full when the season opens trying to contend in the always tough Western Conference after being slapped with the harshest penalties in league history for violating salary cap circumvention rules.

With Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and Ivica Zubac gone from last season’s team, they’ll focus on developing a new core of stars, including rookie Keaton Wagler, when they open play Wednesday by hosing the Sacramento Kings at Intuit Dome.

Another positive for the team: Tyronn Lue is a proven asset as coach and he’ll be tasked with developing and blending in the younger players. Wagler spent the summer building up his body and has potential to be a strong defender.

The league’s year-long investigation is over and the Clippers have a clear path, albeit rocky, to move on and again become competitive in the West. They finished ninth in the conference last season and were eliminated by the Warriors in a play-in game.

Now fully recovered from a foot injury, two-time All-Star guard Darius Garland will be counted on to provide floor leadership. Also returning are former All-Star guard Bradley Beal, guard Kris Dunn, forward Derrick Jones Jr. and center Brook Lopez.

“I think we can surprise a lot of people,” Garland said.

Garland is fully recovered from toe and foot ligament injuries. In 19 games last season, he averaged 19.9 points with 6.4 assists. With a full offseason and training camp, Garland is expected to be one of the team’s top players.

Other young players to watch are guard Kobe Sanders, who had a productive rookie season when averaging 7.3 points and nearly 20 minutes a game as part of the rotation, and center Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who had his rookie season end early because of a foot injury but he showed promise over 41 games.

Additions include All-Star forward Brandon Ingram and guard Gradey Dick, who were part of the Leonard trade to Toronto, wing Max Strus, guard Jalen Pickett, forward Baba Miller, forward Isaiah Jackson and forward Nick Martinelli.

“I know [there are] little to no expectations for us this year,” said Ingram, who will miss the start of the season while recovering from May surgery for a partially torn Achilles. “We have enough in the building to compete. This is what we love to do. So, we’ll go out and compete every single night, learn, go on to the next game and get better and better.”

Strus also will be out for a while after injuring his right foot during training camp.

Departed from the team are forward John Collins, guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, forward Nicolas Batum and wing Bennedict Mathurin.

Also noteworthy: owner Steve Ballmer won’t be sitting courtside after being banned by the NBA for a year as part of the team’s steep punishment for circumventing salary-cap rules. Top basketball executive Lawrence Frank has been banned for six months. The penalties included the loss of five first-round draft picks.

“I give our players a lot of credit … the leadership is great [and] the morale is great, even in these tough situations,” Lue said at the start of training camp. “That’s good to see, when you have your players coming in every day, giving everything they have; a lot of teams don’t have that.”

Staff reports contributed to this story.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Onsi Saleh has consistently emphasized financial flexibility, but his latest comments offer an important clarification: Atlanta has the authority to enter the luxury tax when the right opportunity comes.

During an appearance on SiriusXM, the Hawks’ president of basketball operations discussed navigating the NBA’s apron restrictions and making responsible roster decisions.

“Even with us, we could go in the tax and we have full authority on the tax,” Saleh said.

That statement matters because maintaining flexibility can sometimes leave fans wondering whether an organization is willing to spend. Saleh’s explanation suggests Atlanta’s approach centers on choosing the right investment and understanding the consequences that follow.

The luxury tax and the aprons are separate thresholds. Paying the tax carries a financial cost, while crossing the apron levels brings additional roster-building restrictions. At the second apron, teams lose tools such as the midlevel exception and the ability to combine outgoing player salaries to acquire a more expensive player. Those limitations can make improving an already expensive roster considerably harder.

For Atlanta, keeping options available can create opportunities when other teams need to reduce spending. Saleh discussed that advantage, and the Hawks’ offseason already provides an example of how it can work.

Oklahoma City traded Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe in moves that helped bring the Thunder below the second apron. Atlanta acquired Dort and Wiggins, adding championship experience and perimeter depth while Oklahoma City addressed its financial commitments.

The Thunder were not prohibited from keeping those players. However, the costs and restrictions associated with an expensive roster helped create circumstances Atlanta could exploit. That distinction illustrates why financial discipline can have basketball value beyond the money saved.

Saleh’s challenge is recognizing when preserving flexibility becomes less valuable than using it. Keeping room to maneuver helps Atlanta pursue upgrades, but that flexibility ultimately needs to translate into a stronger team around Jalen Johnson.

His comments do not establish a spending timetable or identify a particular move. They do, however, indicate that entering the tax is an available option rather than a boundary the front office has been instructed never to cross.

That leaves the central decision with Saleh and his staff: determining which opportunity justifies the commitment. Spending on a roster that still needs substantial work could leave Atlanta paying more while making its next improvement harder. Spending when the right pieces are in place could help sustain a team capable of competing deeper into the postseason.

For now, Saleh’s message remains consistent. The Hawks want to make smart decisions, benefit from opportunities elsewhere and preserve the ability to act decisively. His willingness to discuss entering the tax adds substance to that approach. When Atlanta believes the moment has arrived, Saleh says the authority to spend is there.